


Hello To You

by aeriamamaduck



Series: Dragon Age II [1]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Adoption, Fatherhood, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Orphans, Past Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 09:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4601352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeriamamaduck/pseuds/aeriamamaduck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garrett Hawke finds himself in the position of being able to change an infant girl's life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It all began after Aveline came into the Hanged Man with news.

_“One of the slavers the guardsmen interrogated confessed that there may still be elves trapped in the Undercity. Perhaps he was just trying for some leniency, but it’s worth checking out, Hawke.”_

And so Garrett got her, Isabela and Anders to join him in the Undercity to investigate whether or not there was any truth to the confession.

To his horror the slaver had told the truth. The smell of unwashed bodies hit him as they turned a corner, and Garrett spotted a dozen elves of varying age chained together, their bodies thin and their clothing ragged. The sight made the bile rise in Garrett’s throat.

“Maker’s  _shit_ ,” he swore as they ran towards them, noticing with woe that a brown-haired woman lay on her side, terribly still.

The elves exclaimed in various languages, the children beginning to cry in fear when the four humans got closer.  _I should’ve brought Merrill,_ he thought despondently as he knelt to pick at one of the locks on the cuffs.  _Three of them have Dalish tattoos and they don’t seem to take kindly to humans._

Small wonder.

Anders had knelt next to the still woman, and shook his head at Garrett. “It’s too late. She must have starved to death.”

“Peri died last night. Her babe is here, serah,” one of the older men spoke up, and Garrett looked at his arms to find a bundle containing a lethargic infant. Anders quickly took the child in his arms and uncovered it, revealing it to be a girl who promptly began to cry as soon as the air hit her small body.

Anders breathed in relief at the sound, Garrett kneeling next to him as soon as Isabela took over picking the rest of the locks and Aveline began questioning the elves who spoke the common tongue. He looked at the girl in Anders’s hands, her light brown skin flushed with the exertion of crying and her dark hair disheveled. “She looks human,” Garrett commented.

The elf nodded grimly. “…I’ve been with Peri since Antiva. An auctioneer’s assistant forced himself on her and her belly began to grow. The child was born half a year ago.”

Anders exclaimed in shock, “She’s  _that_ old? Maker’s breath, I thought she was younger! No, she’s just undernourished…”

Garrett asked the elf, “Did Peri name her?”

“No. She thought it best she not get too attached to the babe, as they would undoubtedly be separated in Tevinter, but she could not stand to watch the child starve.”

Turning to look at Peri, Garrett realized how young she was. Perhaps no older than Bethany.

“Right, right.  _Ir abelas_ and all that,” Isabela was calling over her shoulder at the three Dalish elves who had said something or other in elvhen. She muttered, kneeling beside Garrett, “Maker’s breath, I think Merrill’s rubbing off on me. Awww, what a cutie pie!”

Aveline then called, “Anders! We need help here.”

“On it.” Anders then held the baby out towards Garrett. “Look, just take her carefully and support her head–”

Years of experience coming back to him, Garrett effortlessly took the baby and tucked her into the crook of his arm. “Don’t worry, I helped take care of Bethany and Carver. You go do the healer thing.”

Anders gave him a brief look of apprehension before getting up and going to help Aveline, the old elf following him. Garrett looked down at the girl, feeling a minor panic when she began to fuss. Without thinking he brought his index finger close to her mouth and she immediately latched on, Garrett feeling something small and sharp poking his skin. “Look at that! You’ve got a tooth coming in. Sorry I’ve no milk for you. I’m completely useless in that department!”

Isabela was grinning at him. “You look so adorably domestic, holding that baby. Now I wish Fenris were here, then I could watch him give you that deliciously lusty look before he finally decides enough’s enough and leaps upon you to impregnate you with his–”

Garrett quickly interrupted her. “I am, unfortunately, lacking the parts for that, Bela. But no doubt you’ll find a way to squeeze male pregnancy into your friendfiction.”

“Oh you know I will. So.” She suddenly looked serious. “I’m betting no one here’s going to be able to take care of her, and Kirkwall’s not a kind place to orphans, unless you send her to the Chantry,” she said with distaste.

He was reaching for the girl’s blanket but thought twice when he saw how filthy it was. “I’m definitely not giving her to the Chantry. She’s not even a year old, so what’s she done to deserve  _that?”_  

“Well what  _will_ you do?” Isabela asked, untying her bandana and handing it to a stunned Garrett, who proceeded to wrap it around the baby.

He got to his feet and knew he’d already decided. Her brown eyes and the way she settled in his arms tugged at him, and he knew life for her would be difficult if she was left on her own. He remembered Pryce, Athenril’s former errand boy, and knew that for every child as fortunate as he’d been there were twenty others going hungry or enduring some sort of abuse in Kirkwall.

“I’ll take her in,” he said loud enough for the others to hear.

Anders and Aveline exchanged a surprised look, the guardswoman asking, “Hawke, are you absolutely sure? Orana was one thing, but this is an infant.”

He shifted the baby to his other arm. “Like I told Anders, I helped take care of Bethany and Carver after they were born, and I’ll have help. What do you say, Aveline? Think you can help speed up the adoption process?”

He gave her his most pleadingly charming smile and she buckled with a small laugh. “Alright, Hawke. Just because it’s you and I saw how you had Bethany attached to your hip. Any ideas for a name? It’d help me get started.”

“A name.” Garrett blinked and looked down at the baby. He hadn’t thought that far, but…it made sense to want to name a daughter after his mother. “…Lia?”

“Lia Hawke it is, then.” Anders patted his shoulder with an admiring smile. “This is a truly wonderful thing you’re doing, Hawke. Anyone else would have refused to take in an elf-blooded child.”

Isabela nodded with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Now all you have to do is figure out how to tell Fenris.”

Garrett’s stomach flipped a couple of times at that reminder. “…Right.”


	2. Chapter 2

Orana brought him the warmed milk, and he carefully tipped the bowl towards Lia’s waiting mouth. She gummed at the edge of the bowl as she drank deeply, making Orana laugh at her eagerness. “Goodness, the little one was certainly hungry!”

Looking back, Garrett was glad Mother and Father had him help take care of the twins. He still remembered how to change a nappy and how to bathe an infant. Lia had reacted to the warm water with surprise, but giggled when Garrett started to wash her soft hair. Based on the few hours spent with her, he determined she had Bethany’s sweet temperament. Mother would have adored her.

He looked at the slabs of wood placed in the vestibule, trying to think about how he’d begin making the cradle tomorrow morning.  _I’ll build it, sand it, varnish it, paint it, and make sure it’s ready and perfect for her by tomorrow night._ For now she’d sleep in a basket Leandra had used to pick flowers.

Once she was done with the milk, Garrett hoisted her up to his shoulder and began to lightly pat her back. He loved the feel of her soft weight in his arms, and how she seemed to lie against him with utter contentment.

 _This’ll be easy,_ he thought.  _If she’s this well-behaved when Fenris arrives, she’ll win him over in five seconds._

Then she began to cry.

Garrett remembered this part well: a baby crying because of an upset stomach or general discontent. He got up and walked to the library and back, making soft shushing noises all to no avail as the evening wore on.

Her shrill voice beginning to wear down his eardrums, Garrett held her in front of him and pleaded, “ _Please_ tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart! Is there too much red in here? Do I smell? Tell me!”

“…Garrett?”

He froze at the sound of that familiar deep voice and turned towards the doorway to find Fenris standing there, holding a package in his hand and a surprised look on his face.

Garrett cleared his throat (the sound muffled by Lia’s shrieking) and stammered, “H-hi.”

“…” Fenris closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stated, “Let me guess: either Isabela’s love life has finally caught up to her or you stole someone’s child and we should begin fortifying the estate against an attack.”

Grinning a bit nervously, Garrett explained, “No! See, what happened was…Andraste’s burning ass, she won’t stop crying!”

Fenris pinched the bridge of his nose and asked, “Start at the beginning, _please._ ”

And Garrett did, watching Fenris’s eyes flare when he told him the slaves were headed to Tevinter. “…And then…well…I couldn’t really let her stay an orphan, so I…sssssort of decided to take her in?” Lia’s crying lessened to whimpers, so Garrett held her up for Fenris to see her properly. “Fenris, meet Lia. Lia, this is Fenris.”

He watched the elf’s face for a reaction, and nearly sighed in relief when Fenris carefully touched Lia’s hair. “She’s…a pretty child.”

“Yeah…Even prettier when she’s not crying.” It was a start. Definitely a start. Then he looked at the package in Fenris’s other hand. “What’s that?”

Fenris looked down as if he’d just remembered. “Oh. It’s a volume on Fereldan history. I thought…well, since it was your home…”

Garrett bent his face and pressed a quick kiss to Fenris’s lips, holding his daughter close and grinning at the surprised look on his lover’s face. “I ever tell you I’ve got a raging crush on you?”

“…Not with an infant in your arms, no.”


	3. Chapter 3

Garrett was unbelievably impulsive and selfless to the point of recklessness, but Fenris would have him no other way.

He supposed that was why he was rubbing the soreness from Garrett’s shoulders as they sat on the bed, Lia finally asleep after he’d walked around rocking her in his arms for about thirty minutes.

“I’ve achieved a miracle,” Garrett breathed, leaning back against Fenris’ chest and relaxing for the first time in hours.

Fenris looked at the infant, surprised that she was so healthy, considering where she’d come from.

She had a hearty cry too, one that never failed to alarm Garrett. He was sure Lia was ill after crying for so long and was ready to take her to the abomination before he finally figured out she just needed help falling asleep.

“Are you angry with me?” Garrett suddenly asked, turning his head to look up at him.

“Angry? Why?”

“For not consulting you about a baby.”

He shrugged. “You saw a child in need and decided to take her in. You seem to do that with everyone, and you’re good at it.” Then he gave the man’s hair a reassuring stroke. “No, I’m not angry. This is your home to do with as you please.”

Garrett didn’t immediately relax against him, and then said, “It’s your home too, Fenris. That is…I’d like you to feel like…it can be your home. Ours, that is.”

Fenris tightened his grip on him, thinking to himself that  _Garrett_ was his home rather than their separate mansions.


	4. Chapter 4

“Here, hold her.”

Fenris gaped at Garrett, feeling a chill crawl up his spine as his gaze flicked down towards the infant in his arms.

Garrett had explained hours before when he first entered the mansion to find utter chaos. The human looked as if he’d been chased all over Hightown by the Arishok, but this foe turned out to be a colicky baby.

Brown eyed and small, Fenris had been surprised to learn that she was elf blooded. When Garrett told him, nervously so, that he was making her his daughter, Fenris had not been all that shocked. It seemed the kind of thing Garrett would do; take responsibility, particularly when it was obvious that there was nowhere for the girl to go that wasn’t the Chantry.

He watched as Garrett became absorbed in the girl he named Lia, his eyes shining as he fed her warm milk from a small bowl while they sat on the bed. He was naturally suited, having cared for his siblings.

Fenris, however, had never held a child. Most children gave him a wide berth and it was Garrett to whom they all flocked because he was that good-natured.

Yet here was Garrett, asking him to hold his daughter as if he were used to such an action. “I…I’ve never held one before.”

Garrett’s smile was understanding yet he persisted. “It’s easy, love. You’re already sitting and you took your gauntlets off, so all you have to do is hold your arms out like I am.”

Fenris did so, apprehensive and fearing he would do something wrong. Suddenly Garrett was lowering Lia into his arms, and Fenris tensed as her weight settled. She was so light but solid enough that Fenris’s heart sped up. He felt all the heat leave his face as he froze up, trying not to do… _anything_. Then Lia began to wiggle, and the elf looked up at Garrett, alarmed.

But Garrett had a wistful smile as he gazed at him, that tender look calming Fenris enough that he could stand to relax just a bit, mindful of the baby in his arms.


End file.
